1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a meter device for automobiles (referred to as automotive instrument hereinafter) and, more particularly, to an integrated automotive instrument in which meter scale plates such as of a speed meter, a tachometer and so forth and a lens of a warning indicator are disposed on the same display panel in a side-by-side fashion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such an automotive instrument has been known as having a case accommodating the main part of the instrument, a meter plate provided on the front side of the case and constituting a display panel, and a cover which covers the meter plate. The meter plate carries a meter scale plate and an indicator lens in a side-by-side fashion. An instrument mechanism and a light source are disposed behind the meter sale plate, so as to illuminate the scale plate from the rear side thereof. A part of the light from the scale plate is transmitted to the hand of the meter through a light-conducting plate thereby illuminating the hand.
An indicator light source is disposed behind the indicator lens so as to illuminate the latter. The indicator lens and the meter scale plate are separated from each other by a partition wall provided on the case.
This known automotive instrument has a drawback in that, when the light sources are turned on during cruising in the night or in the dark, the light for illuminating the meter scale plate tends to leak to the indicator area through a minute gap between the meter plate and the indicator lens.
In order to avoid this problem, hitherto, it has been proposed to form a light-shielding wall protruding from the rear side of the meter plate. Such a light-shielding wall, however, cannot perfectly prevent the leak of light. Namely, a small portion of the light undesirably leaks to impinge upon the indicator lens through a minute gap between the light-shielding wall and the partition wall or between the light shielding wall and the rear side of the meter plate, with an undesirable effect that the indicator is illuminated in an obscure manner even when the indicator is not operating.